


I'll Be Home for Christmas

by zeldasayre



Category: Druck | SKAM (Germany)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, American AU, Christmas Fluff, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 15,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21714142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeldasayre/pseuds/zeldasayre
Summary: Since Matteo goes to college across the country, his friend Laura invites him home with her for the holidays. Her brother is less than thrilled. Her brother is also Matteo's long-time no-it's-not-a-crush. It's about to be a long couple of weeks.
Relationships: Matteo Florenzi/David (Druck)
Comments: 91
Kudos: 351





	1. Chapter 1

Laura had told Matteo her brother went to their school, and he’d heard David’s last name before, in attendance for the class they’d had in common sophomore year. But he hadn’t made the connection. Matteo felt extremely dumb, staring at him now. Schreibner wasn’t exactly an overly-common last name.

David glared at his sister.

“Shut up, David,” she said.

“I didn’t _say_ anything.”

“You’re being rude.”

“I didn’t _say_ anything!”

She rolled her eyes. “Sorry, Matteo. He’s just a Grinch. Don’t take it personally.”

Was it personal? Matteo looked between the two of them, his brows raised. He didn’t really get what was going on. The telepathic sibling-speak was intense.

“I’m still driving,” David said.

“Did I ask?” Laura crossed her arms over her chest. “Matteo’s gonna sit in the passenger seat.”

“ _Laura._ ”

“ _David._ ”

“I don’t mind sitting in the back,” Matteo offered.

“Don’t be generous, Matteo.”

He really wasn’t. If David didn’t want to sit next to him, he didn’t want to sit next to David.

He couldn’t believe he hadn’t made the connection. It wasn’t like he knew David all that well, but he did _know_ him. It was obvious David had not been given a vote in the ‘inviting Matteo home for the holidays’ scheme. If he’d known Laura’s brother didn’t want him to come, and if he’d known Laura’s brother was _David_ , and _David_ didn’t want him to come, he most definitely would not have agreed.

It was too late now, anyway. Matteo put his bag in the back and slid reluctantly into the passenger seat. Laura sat in the back and immediately leaned forward to mess with the radio.

“If you’re going to do that, you should just sit in the front,” David said.

“Shut up, David.”

“You need new material.”

“Shut up.”

Matteo fiddled with the bottom of his sweater. This was going to be a long drive.

The first time Matteo had seen David was across the quad freshman year. He’d been sitting under a tree, drawing, and he’d looked up just as Matteo had stepped out of the cafeteria. He probably hadn’t looked at Matteo— from that distance he easily could have been looking at anything nearby. But it _felt_ like they’d locked eyes, and Matteo’s heart had done the whole bit— skipping a beat, racing, the whole nine yards. He’d immediately turned and dashed in the other direction.

His roommate, Jonas, knew all about Matteo’s unrequited, unavailing, arguably unfounded crush. They’d barely spoken two words to each other— everything they _had_ said had been in the context of a single group project in their single shared class two years ago. It wasn’t even really a crush, though. Matteo just thought David was hot, and got flustered whenever he saw him or tried to talk to him or heard his name.

Jonas knew all about it. Laura, however, did not.

He was regretting, now, his total refusal to tell her who Jonas was always teasing him about.

This was not an ideal situation.

The Schreibner house was immediately noticeable, even before Matteo knew it was theirs. There were enough lights and decorations to illuminate a small village. There were three separate blow-up Santas. One was on a tractor. One was in a rocket ship.

“Wow,” Matteo said.

“Right?” Laura said, grinning wide as she leaned forward in her seat.

David sighed.

The driveway had been cleared of snow— David pulled in and was out of the car before Matteo could even get his seatbelt off. Then he’d opened the back, grabbed his suitcase, and slammed the front door closed behind him all while Laura and Matteo got out.

“Don’t take any of his crap personally,” Laura said. “David’s just weird about the holidays.” She leaned in conspiratorially. “My cousins will be here in a couple days, and they always give him a hard time.”

When Matteo made a face, Laura shook her head.

“They’re not transphobic or anything. Kind of the opposite, actually.”

“The opposite?”

“Yeah. Ever since he came out they’ve been, like, making up for lost time, making fun of him him and smacking him around and going on about his love life. Or lack thereof.” She pulled both their suitcases out at once, handing Matteo’s over as they carefully made their way from the icy driveway to the door.

Matteo leaned close to whisper before she could turn the knob. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that _David_ was your brother.”

She quirked a brow. “I didn’t realize you knew each other.”

Matteo straightened as she pushed inside. “We don’t. It’s just—” He dropped off as he followed her, stunned into silence by what he saw. The house was like one of those mini Christmas villages set up in malls. Every available surface was decorated with candles and baubles and glitter and Santa hats. The smell of cinnamon and pine was so strong he nearly had a coughing fit. Then he followed her into the living room.

“The pièce de résistance,” Laura said, holding out an arm in a displaying gesture, as if what was in front of them needed any assistance in being seen.

Between two couches and an arm chair, on top of what was presumably a coffee table in other parts of the year, was a ceramic Christmas village so sprawling and elaborate that Matteo imagined it probably took longer just to set up than his family had ever spent on decorations for their entire house in their life.

“Uh,” he said, “wow.”

“Our father’s pride and joy.”

Matteo felt his brows raise despite himself.

Laura laughed. “I know.”

“I didn’t—”

“Literally no one has ever not been surprised. But my mom actually hates it. She kind of hates all of this, to be honest. If she had it her way we would probably have a plastic tree and stockings at _most_.”

Matteo walked closer to the very large tiny village. “It’s kind of amazing.”

“Make sure you tell dad that.”

“Tell me what?”

They turned as a tall man with a thick white beard came into the room, beaming wide. Laura grinned and ran into his arms. The man laughed. He held out a hand to Matteo when Laura let him go. “You must be young Mr. Florenzi.”

“Hi,” Matteo said, shaking his hand.

“Welcome! I’m so sorry you couldn’t get home to your family for the holidays. But we’re thrilled to have you here!”

“Thanks for having me,” Matteo said.

David appeared from what was presumably his room and walked behind them to get to the kitchen, ignoring all three of them entirely. _Yeah_ , Matteo thought, he _seems_ _thrilled._

Laura caught his eye and nudged him with her elbow. “Come on. Lemme show you your digs.” She led the way toward the stairs.

The attic was warm and shockingly free of cobwebs and dust. A soft white rug sprawled over most of the floor, and though there wasn’t any other furniture, the bed pushed up against the little window looked comfortable. Matteo smiled at Laura as she watched him expectantly.

“The wifi password is legalizelambs. Long story with no real punchline. You can just dump your stuff here for now and we’ll go stuff our faces.”

Matteo nodded, dutifully dropping his bag and following her back downstairs.

He nearly ran into David in the hallway. He backed up; David backed up; Laura kept walking, missing the whole exchange. Matteo felt himself staring but didn’t know what to do, and couldn’t think of what to say.

David stared back at him for a moment before dropping his eyes to the floor. He cleared his throat. He shuffled his feet.

“You’re blocking my door.”

Matteo felt his face go hot as he stepped back so fast and far that he hit the opposite wall. David didn’t say anything. He just went in his room and closed the door.

“Matteo?” Laura called.

“Coming.” He let himself close his eyes and breathe for three seconds before starting off again down the hall.


	2. Chapter 2

Mrs. Schreibner might not have been a fan of elaborate decorating, but she definitely wasn’t a Scrooge. By dinner time, Matteo and Laura had helped her in baking and decorating three separate batches of Christmas cookies; two sugar, one gingerbread. Matteo had eaten so much dough he was seriously concerned he might actually get Salmonella. Laura only knew the lyrics to two winter songs— “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and “Santa Baby”— but that didn’t stop her from singing the entire afternoon.

David hadn’t made another appearance. Matteo kept finding himself looking toward his door, despite himself. Laura caught him at it once, and nudged him gently. “Seriously,” she said, “it’s not you. Give him a couple of days, he’ll warm up to you being here.”

The Schreibners did family dinners, apparently— but they didn’t sit at the dining room table; instead, they camped out around the Christmas village and watched whatever bad Netflix Christmas movie had been most recently added. Laura sat next to Matteo, legs crossed beneath her as she spilled taco fillings on the couch. Matteo was much more careful, and not just in eating. He kept his gaze fixed steadily on the screen, hyper-aware of David sitting just across from him, his face lit up from below by the village’s little lights.

“Oh!” Mrs. Schreibner said. “I didn’t realize this was a musical.”

Laura giggled as her dad cranked up the volume to ear-piercing levels and faux-head-banged to the extremely over-auto-tuned Christmas-themed pop song which a white girl with Bambi eyes was singing in the middle of a very public space. Matteo grinned, looking back and forth between Mr. Schreibner and the screen. David pressed his hands over his ears.

“What’s your favorite Christmas movie, Matteo?” Laura asked, beaming at him as the song finally came to a close.

“Probably _The Holiday_.”

Laura made a loud noise and pointed at David accusatorially. David scowled. Matteo, confused, looked between the two of them with furrowed brows.

“That’s his favorite, too.”

“Oh,” Matteo said, feeling himself blush again. “Well, it’s pretty popular.”

“Dad’s is _Love, Actually_ , and mom’s is _Home Alone._ Mine is _Carol._ ”

“Not a Christmas movie,” David said.

“Don’t be a homophobe, David.”

“ _I’m_ queer.”

“Don’t be a lesbophobe, then.”

“You’re an idiot.”

Laura threw herself back against the couch. “ _‘My angel,’_ ” she said, breathily, as she pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. “ _‘Flung out of space.’_ ”

“Just because a movie is set in December doesn’t make it a Christmas movie,” David said.

“Wrong. Lesbophobe.”

“I never said it was a bad movie. If anything calling it a _Christmas movie_ trivializes it as a serious piece of cinema. _Christmas movies_ are inherently—”

“Capitalistic, Christian propaganda, yeah, we know. Therese is _literally_ wearing a Santa hat when she meets Carol though.”

“You’re such a—”

“Shhh!” Mrs. Schreibner says. “We’re missing _this_ propaganda.”

Mr. Schreibner clapped a hand to his chest. “Thank you, Big Brother, for this wonderful film.”

“Sometimes it is so _glaringly_ obvious that I’m adopted,” David said.

“Oh, honey, you weren’t,” Mr. Schreibner said. “Your mother had an affair.”

Mrs. Schreibner nodded mournfully. “In my defense, though, he was _much_ better looking than your father.”

“Oh, astronomically.”

David rolled his eyes so far back it looked like it hurt. He didn’t say anything else, though. He glanced at Matteo, who immediately dropped his wide grin. Then everyone was quiet for a while, actually watching the movie for at least ten minutes.

“This is very bad,” Mrs. Schreibner said.

On that they could all agree.

Sunlight streaming in on his face woke Matteo. He sat up slowly, looking around. It took a long moment for him to remember where he was— but even before he did, he wasn’t bothered about it. Going to college did that for him. Every year he’d get back, move into his new dorm, and wake up that first morning vaguely disoriented, but nothing had gone wrong so far, so by now, he was used to it.

This wasn’t his dorm room, though. He sat up, sighing, and threw back the covers. He was in David Schreibner’s house. It was Laura’s, too, obviously. If he was just in Laura’s house it would be fine. He’d be excited to go hang out with her, with no classes or homework to worry about. But _David_ lived here. David might be downstairs right then, walking around with sleep-ruffled hair and morning breath. The thought made his stomach flip like a pancake on a stovetop.

He needed to relax. This really wasn’t that big of a deal. It’s not like they were sharing a room. He and Laura must not be all that close, seeing as she’d never introduced Matteo to him at school. So they probably wouldn’t be spending more time together than was strictly necessary. It was all gonna be fine. It _was_ fine. Matteo got dressed and started downstairs.

Laura came out of the bathroom just as he approached, and shot him a wide grin. “You ready for today?” she asked.

“What’s today?”

“Duh,” she said, “sledding.”

“Tobogganing,” David corrected, suddenly appearing from behind Laura, holding a beanie. He was very clearly already put-together— no bed head, no morning breath. Matteo hated himself for it, but he was almost a little disappointed.

“ _You’re_ tobogganing,” Laura said. “ _We’re_ sledding. Like true Americans.”

“First of all, tobogganing is perfectly American. Second of all, being a ‘true American’ is nothing to brag about, unless you’re in _New Girl._ ”

“Toboggan isn’t even an American word.”

“Oh really, Laura? I didn’t realize you were so well-versed in the grammatical rules of _American._ Is that your first language, or?”

“Do you write your own material? Because if not you should really give your ghost a raise—”

“Sledding sounds great,” Matteo said, all in a rush. David glared at him, _hard_ , but to be honest, all Matteo could think about just then was getting into the bathroom. He was suddenly very aware that it was morning and he had gone to sleep the night before with a rather full bladder.

Laura held up a hand for a high five and stepped out of the way. Matteo slammed the door behind himself.

“Ten points for every nine-year-old you wipe out,” Laura said.

“I’d think it would be nine points for a nine-year-old,” Matteo shot back, grinning wide.

David hung back, typing rapidly on his phone. Laura noticed Matteo glancing his way. “His friends are joining us,” she said. She shrugged. “Don’t worry, they’re cool.”

“They’re _our_ friends,” David insisted.

“His,” Laura said. “But they’re cool.”

David frowned at her, looked back at his phone, and then looked up again, and around, before breaking into a wide grin, the likes of which Matteo had never actually seen on him before. His stomach dropped to his toes, which curled in his boots at the sensation.

“Over here!” David called out. Matteo turned, following his line of sight to where a black girl and a red-headed girl dressed in a bright green puff jacket and a light blue North Face, respectively, were jogging over to them, plastic sleds tucked under their arms.

They tackled David in a massive bear hug, all three of them laughing loud in that way reuniting friends do even though nothing funny has been said— like their joy can’t physically stay inside their bodies at the simple sight of each other.

When they’d pulled back, the black girl beamed at Matteo just as the ginger raised a questioning brow.

“What’s up?” the black girl said.

“Hey, Sam, hey Hanna,” Laura said, holding out hands for high fives to each girl as she addressed them. “This is Matteo,” she gestured to him. “Matteo, this is Sam, and Hanna.”

“Hey,” he said, smiling.

“You seem cool,” Sam said. She turned to David. “He seems cool,” she repeated, in a somewhat accusatory tone. Matteo felt his cheeks flame and his stomach sink at the implication. David rolled his eyes. “I didn’t say he wasn’t,” he muttered.

“Y’all know David’s just terrified of the Mahmoods,” Laura said. “Matteo _is_ cool. Do not blame David’s foul moods on this sweet angel.” She petted Matteo’s head like a dog.

Matteo swatted her away. Sam laughed. “It’s nice to meet you, Matteo.”

“You too.”

He looked at Hanna again. She finally cracked a smile, although she kept looking back and forth between Matteo and David like she knew something no one else did. Matteo looked between the two of them, in return, trying to figure out what was up. David noticed and promptly shoved Hanna with his shoulder. She just chuckled and held up her sled.

“Shall we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes David is related to Amira in this universe. very galaxy brain of me if i do say so myself  
> also i have a cold and i wrote the second half of this with a very fuzzy brain so apologies if anything is like... nonsense


	3. Chapter 3

There was a mini van in the driveway when they got back to the Schreibners’ house; covered in snow and mud and more than a couple of bruises from hours of sledding— and tobogganing. It was clearly a rental, and the trunk was open, a solitary suitcase left to be unpacked. David sighed and headed inside. Laura pulled Matteo aside.

“So, here’s the situation,” she said. Matteo raised a brow. “The Mahmoods are Muslim, so they don’t actually celebrate Christmas. But they’re David’s biological aunt and uncle— and cousins— so they come here to see him, and at Ramadan, we go to Berlin to see them.” She was talking very fast.

“Berlin?”

“Yeah. That’s where they live. The thing is, they were one of the options to adopt David when his parents died. Our parents were David’s god parents, though, and David had always lived here, and his friends and his school and everything were here, and he knew our parents and everything.”

“That makes sense,” Matteo said.

“Yeah.”

“I thought you said he didn’t like seeing the cousins, though.”

“He loves them— Amira especially. I think it’s just a lot of pressure, only seeing them twice a year, and them being his only biological family, you know. He wants to impress them, I think.”

“OK.”

“So that’s the situation,” Laura repeated, nodding decisively, like she’d done her due diligence and whatever happened now was out of her hands. Matteo didn’t know what he was supposed to do with all this information.

“OK,” he said again.

Laura nodded again and strode toward the front door.

It was immediately loud inside the house. Someone was shouting about sleeping arrangements, someone else was shouting about mud in the house. Mrs. Schreibner was loudly singing “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” but the living room overhead speakers were playing “Blue Christmas.” David was nowhere to be seen— when Matteo looked, his door was firmly shut.

“Laura!” A girl in a soft green hijab smiled broadly and approached them with open arms.

“Amira!” Laura hugged the girl tight and pulled away with a smile. “This is Matteo,” she said.

“Hi!”

“Hey,” Matteo said, smiling— genuinely, actually. Something about Amira’s energy made him feel comfortable and pleasant. He didn’t have to fake politeness for her.

“Where’s David?” A boy yelled from the middle of the living room.

“We should get out of our muddy clothes,” Laura said, looking at Matteo. He nodded and followed her lead in discarding his boots and coat by the door before skirting through the chaos of the living room to his attic hideaway.

“David’s probably showering already, but you can go next. We’re gonna go get coffee all together after, if that’s cool.”

“’Course.”

They went their separate ways, and Matteo grabbed a fresh change of clothes. He waited until Laura called him down. David was just closing his bedroom door behind himself again when Matteo reached the bathroom. Matteo barely glimpsed David’s towel, wrapped around himself, and his hair, wet and dripping on the carpet. He dropped his eyes to the floor quickly and shut himself in the bathroom.

David’s boy cousins— Essam and Omar— were loud in the backseat of the car as they drove into town, haggling David and speaking in rapid German as they fought over the AUX cord. Matteo walked slowly behind the group as they headed into the hole-in-the-wall coffee shop, which was littered inside and out with an abundance of twinkle lights.

Soft indie covers of Christmas songs played over the cafe speakers. Matteo stuck close to Laura’s side as they went in a pack to the front counter to order, then chose a wide booth in the corner by the window to collapse into. Laura escaped to the bathroom, and Matteo somehow ended up sandwiched between David and Omar. He gave the latter a tight-lipped smile as he beamed at him, a question in his eyes.

“So,” Omar started, backed up by his brother, who immediately leaned in toward them. “You are Laura’s friend.”

“Um… yes.”

“She does not waste time, huh?” Essam said, cackling. Matteo furrowed his brows.

“You could take a lesson from her, David,” Omar said.

“Would you two shut up?” Amira said.

“We just worry about you, little brother,” Omar said. He almost sounded genuine.

“Yeah,” Essam said. “We are not here to help you all the time. You must learn to get some on your own. Like Laura.”

“You guys are idiots,” Amira said.

Matteo expected David to shoot something scathing back to the two of them. He knew he wasn’t short on comebacks or insults. But David just sat there, quiet and closed up, his shoulders drawn down and inward like he was caging himself in.

“I’m not Laura’s boyfriend,” Matteo said, suddenly.

Omar quirked a brow. “You’re not?”

Essam frowned. “Lame.”

“I’m David’s,” Matteo said. The cousins gaped at him. David’s head shot up so fast it probably hurt his neck.

A silent moment seemed to stretch into infinity. “No way!” Omar said, finally, a smile growing wide on his face as he looked between them.

“Um,” Matteo said, feeling his cheeks flame as he stared at the tabletop and David stared a hole into the side of his face, “way.”

“Why did you not tell us?” Essam said, leaning forward, sounding outraged. “We should have been the first to know!”

“Yeah, David! I’m hurt!”

David pressed his lips in a thin line.

“Um,” Matteo said again. “I… we… I’m in the closet. So. I asked him not to tell anyone.”

“Do Auntie and Uncle know?” Omar asked, his eyes wide.

“No,” Matteo said quickly. “No. I didn’t want them to mention it to my parents. They just think I’m here for Laura. So please don’t… mention it to them.” He chanced a glance toward David. He had his eyes closed. He kind of looked like he wanted to strangle Matteo.

“Does Laura know?” Amira asked.

“Do I know what?”

Matteo felt his eyes go wide as he looked up and met Laura’s questioning gaze.

David looked at her too, his expression blank— almost bored-looking. “That Matteo and I are dating.”

Matteo tried desperately to communicate with her telepathically. It did not work.

“You _what?!_ ”

Essam cracked up. “That answers that!”

Matteo slipped his phone out of his pocket and typed hurriedly and as discreetly as possible under the table.

 _please play along,_ he texted Laura. He could hear when her phone buzzed. She broke eye contact with him to pull it out of her pocket, and immediately her face went blank, and she slid her phone back into her pants, looking up again with a sly grin. Clearly she didn’t need further explanation. Man, he loved her.

“Kidding, idiots,” she said. “’Course I knew.”

Amira gaped, now. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” she said.

Laura shrugged as she slid into the booth beside her. “It wasn’t my business to share.”

David sent her a truly formidable death glare. She just smirked.

“OK,” Omar said, clapping his hands. “Tell us everything.” He stared at David expectantly. David dropped his expression of ire, but the panicked bemusement which followed was even worse, so Matteo jumped in immediately, like he couldn’t help himself— again. He could slap himself. His face was still burning hot. He wished he’d ordered an iced drink.

“We met in class,” he said in a rush. “But, um, I— well, I mean, I saw him before that. I liked him before we ever met, actually. Kind of at first sight. Which is…” he trailed off, somehow going even redder, feeling all their eyes on him, none more so than David’s, so close to him and so focused and surprised— horrified, probably. “Embarrassing… to admit…” he laughed shakily, tossing his hair and running a trembling hand through it. “But I guess I just… did that.”

Amira made an _awww_ sound, smiling and clapping a hand over her chest.

Omar grinned, clapping Matteo on the back. “Amazing. Just like _Love Actually!_ ”

“How is that like _Love Actually_?” Amira said.

Laura was avoiding anyone’s eyes, a hand pressed over her mouth as she shook with laughter.

Matteo couldn’t look at David. He could feel him, stiff as ice, beside him, though, and his own body was hot everywhere, sweat dripping down his back, by the time his name was called at the counter. He leapt up, knocking his knee on the table and startling everyone into staring at him again. “I should… get that.”

He ran from the table. Laura cracked up behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE FAKE DATING. (kind of) (SURPRISE) (were you surprised???)


	4. Chapter 4

Laura sent Matteo several loaded glances on the car ride home, but the moment they got into the house, it was David who grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the group. He slammed his bedroom door behind them and whirled on Matteo, his eyes alight with rage.

“What is your problem?”

Matteo felt nauseous and also like he was on fire. He stuttered out, “I—I’m r-really sorry— I just—”

“You’re making fun of me, right? You think this is funny?”

That cut Matteo short. He furrowed his brows, genuinely confused. “What?”

“Hilarious, man. Seriously. You got me.”

“I’m not—” Matteo felt his eyes go wide. Did David think he was homophobic? Did he think— “I’m gay!” he said.

David’s rage melted off his face, replaced by his own full-blown bewilderment. “What?”

“I’m not making fun of you! I’m not a homophobe, I’m gay!”

David dropped his head into his hands. “Matteo. I know you’re gay.”

“Oh.” Now Matteo was really confused. He tried, “I’m also single.”

David’s head shot up, his eyes wide.

“Like, perpetually,” Matteo added. “So if you think I’m, like, making fun of you for… being single…”

David schooled his expression and sighed.

“I just thought…” Matteo said. He pressed a hand over his eye, squinting with the other one, his face hot again. “They were being jerks. I was trying to help.”

“Right,” David said, rolling his eyes. “Super helpful. Thanks.”

“I can take it back,” Matteo said. “I’ll tell them I was kidding.”

“Yeah, because that makes me look less pathetic,” David said. He rolled his eyes. “No, the damage is done.” He leveled Matteo with a look. “We’re in this now, thanks to you. But we need rules.”

“Oh. OK?”

“Nothing in front of my parents. If they hear about any of this, even from my cousins, I will murder you.”

Matteo chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “That’s fair.”

“We’ll definitely see Sam and Hanna while my cousins are here,” David said with a sigh. “I’ll just… tell them ahead of time. The truth. At least I can blame you.”

“Yeah,” Matteo said, his shoulders drooping.

David stared at him. “Seriously,” he said after a beat. “Who does that?”

Matteo shrugged helplessly.

David sighed again. “OK. Get out of my room.”

Matteo turned to do just that, but David stopped him. “Wait,” he said. Matteo turned.

David’s jaw worked. He stared hard at the ground. “You can’t kiss me,” he said. “On the mouth, I mean.”

Matteo’s face must have looked like a Rothko painting. “Um,” he managed, and somehow his voice broke on that single syllable. He cleared his throat, straightening, and tried for cool and casual, hoping a joke might help disguise his frenzy. “OK, Julia Roberts.”

David snorted, finally looking up at Matteo again. “If anything, I’m Richard Gere,” he said. “And you’re supposed to say the name of the movie, not the actress.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

David rolled his eyes. Then he furrowed his brow. “And… no more improvising like you did back there. Run stuff by me first. That at-first-sight thing was a little much.”

Matteo nodded, his eyes fixed on the floor, and spun around, leaving the room as quickly as his feet could take him.

Laura looked up from her phone with a wide smile, right at Amira. “Kiki’s here!”

Amira nearly tripped over herself leaping to stand up and race to the door. Matteo watched all this with raised brows. He looked at Laura. “Who’s Kiki?”

“Amira’s long-distance girlfriend,” Laura said. “They met when Kiki did a semester as an exchange student in Berlin. Kiki lives out of state, but still in New England, so, we’re basically neighbors.” She laughed. “Her family’s staunchly atheist, so they let her come stay with us while the Mahmoods are here.”

“Oh. Nice.”

He watched as a beaming, beach blonde girl came into the living room; a giant duffel bag hanging off one shoulder and Amira hanging off the other.

David’s door opened. He was smiling. Matteo felt his brows raising of their own volition. “Did I hear mention of Kiki?” David called out. The blonde girl whooped and they crossed the room to each other, meeting in the middle to hug— Amira hanging on, still, all the while, and getting sandwiched in the middle.

Kiki smiled at the room en whole when they separated, wrapping an arm around Amira’s shoulder. “Hi, everyone!” She looked right at Matteo. “I don’t know you.”

“That’s Matteo,” Amira said. She glanced over at her parents, talking with Mrs. Schreibner in the doorway of the kitchen. “Laura’s friend,” she finished, hesitantly.

“Hey,” Kiki said, putting out a hand for Matteo to shake. “Kiki.”

“Hi,” Matteo said, getting up on his knees to shake her hand over the back of the couch. Kiki spun around when she released his hand, squeezing Amira around the waist and burying her face in her shoulder. She made a high-pitched squealing sound, muffled in volume but not enthusiasm by Amira’s sweatshirt. Amira squeezed her back, smiling the kind of smile that makes your cheeks hurt.

“We were just debating whether we should decorate gingerbread houses tonight or tomorrow,” Omar called out.

“I’m so down,” Kiki said.

“Good,” Mrs. Schreibner said, coming out of the kitchen with oven mitts around a cookie sheet covered in gingerbread. “Because they’re ready.”

Matteo’s mouth was tacky with the aftertaste of multiple cups of hot chocolate. The only light left in the living room was from the tree and the tiny village— although that wasn’t a negligible amount of light, really. Laura was snoring loudly in an arm chair, and Matteo was half-asleep himself, sprawled out on the carpet. He listened to the dim sound of David’s pencil moving over his sketchpad from the couch. He yawned wide and pulled himself up onto one elbow.

“How do you draw in this light?” he whispered. “Doesn’t it hurt your eyes?”

Sometimes being tired was like being half-drunk— he doubted he would have had the guts to talk to David, unprompted, in the light of day, especially after the events of that afternoon. David’s pencil paused, and he looked over at Matteo, his expression unreadable in the low light.

“I’m used to it,” he said.

“What are you drawing?”

A long moment of silence lapsed before David shrugged.

Matteo chuckled. “OK. Don’t tell me.”

David was silent again. Matteo yawned again.

“You’re an art major, right?” Matteo asked after a while. David’s pencil had begun moving again.

“Yeah,” David said.

“That’s cool. I remember the stuff you’d draw on your notes in Branwell’s class. It was really good.”

David was quiet. Then, “Those were just doodles,” he said, in a hushed voice.

“Good doodles,” Matteo said. He snorted. “Goodles.”

David huffed a laugh. Matteo heard him shuffle around a bit on the couch. “What’s your major?” he asked.

“Environmental Studies.”

“Right,” David said. “Like Laura.”

“Yeah. We’re lab partners.”

“How’s that?”

“Terrible. She spills deadly chemicals on me, like, every day.”

David laughed.

“We don’t even use them,” Matteo said. He was laying down again, grinning up at the ceiling. “She just gets them out to spill them on me.”

“That’s in character.”

Matteo laughed.

There was silence for a stretch, and then David’s pencil paused again. “It must suck to be away from home for the holidays.”

Matteo shrugged, then arched his back, stiff on the carpet, to crack his spine. David winced at the noise, and Matteo laughed.

“It’s OK,” Matteo said. “Things are… complicated at home right now, anyway.”

“Complicated?” David asked, his voice curious. He cleared his throat. “Sorry. I don’t mean to pry.”

“No,” Matteo turned on his side, propping himself up on his elbow and trying to make eye contact with David in the low light. “It’s OK. Just… my parents are separated, and my mom’s been having some… health problems. So she’s actually in the hospital at the moment.”

“Oh!” David straightened a bit. “You don’t want to go see her in the hospital?”

“I would,” Matteo said. “But. You know. Money.”

“Right.”

Matteo cleared his throat. “Um. And it’s mental health problems, actually. So she’s not, like… dying.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

David cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. It’s hard to be away from family this time of year, regardless.”

Matteo chewed on his lower lip. “You must miss your parents, huh?”

David shrugged, and was quiet for a while. “I don’t remember them that well,” he said. He smiled. “The Schreibners are my parents, anyway.”

Matteo nodded. “It must be good to see the Mahmoods, too.”

David sighed. “Yeah. It is.”

Matteo felt his face heat; grateful for the dark, he let himself fall down on his back again.

“Thank you,” David said, quietly. Matteo raised a brow.

“For what?”

“I get that you… meant well. With the whole. Boyfriend thing. It’s not what I would have… but, I get you were… so. Anyway. Thanks.”

Matteo stared up at the ceiling, his heart pounding fast, so loud in the quiet of the night and the mostly-empty living room.

“Um,” he said. “No… problem.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my davenzi fics are just a ruse to get you all to read my crack fem ships. you're all welcome


	5. Chapter 5

“Sing it, Mariah!” Laura yelled in the middle of the mall. Several middle-aged people sent them startled glances. Matteo smacked Laura’s arm.

Kiki swayed as they walked, lip-syncing along to the music as she dragged Amira by her hand ahead of the rest of the group. They reached the exit before the song ended, but Laura wouldn’t let them leave until it was over, so Matteo crossed the food court to grab another kettle corn sample. He didn’t even like kettle corn, particularly, but free food was free food.

“OK,” Laura said when they finally stepped through the sliding glass doors into the freezing wind outside. Matteo shivered hard and all over. “We stop home, briefly, and then it’s on to Belmont.”

“I do not understand this,” Matteo said. “Touring malls within a week of Christmas is, like, all kinds of masochistic. And you’re not even buying things! What are we _doing_ right now?”

“Don’t fight it,” Kiki said. “It’s useless. I’ve tried.”

“Malls are fun at Christmastime!” Laura cried, outraged. “There are giant ornaments hanging from the ceiling! And Christmas music plays 24/7! And kids are taking pictures with Santa! It’s like the North Pole!”

“The mall isn’t even open 24/7,” Amira said.

Laura made a rude noise with her mouth, and they piled into the car.

The other guys had stayed home, at least for the first part of this bizarre mall-crawl, and Matteo immediately cast a glance around the house for David when they got inside, despite himself.

He heard his voice coming from the kitchen, and separated from the group, trailing toward the sound like a kid following the smell of baked goods. If Jonas was there, he would be giving Matteo so much crap right then.

“I _know_ ,” David was saying into his phone. “Trust me, Hanna. This was not my idea. If I could get out of it, I would. He just spat it out, in front of everyone! What do you want me to do?”

Matteo froze, but not soon enough— David spun, his eyes going wide. He dropped his phone to his side, Hanna’s voice still coming from the speaker, though Matteo couldn’t process what she was saying over the white noise buzzing like a chainsaw in his ears.

“I didn’t—” David said. “I wasn’t—”

Matteo turned and hurried away.

For several reasons, Matteo wished David hadn’t told his friends the truth. For one, because he wouldn’t have had to hear that phone call in the kitchen. For another, because Sam wouldn’t stop sending him not-so-sly winks, and Amira, at least, had definitely noticed. For a third, whenever she thought he wasn’t looking, Hanna would give Matteo stink-eye the likes of which could kill a man.

He didn’t understand what her problem was. Did _she_ think he was making fun of David? Matteo sighed as he accepted the hot chocolate Laura handed him and headed back into the fray of shoppers.

They rejoined the group, and Matteo’s eyes met David’s immediately, as Essam and Omar loudly argued over whether the hot chocolate was better at Coffee Bean or Starbucks. David licked his lips, and as they all started off again, heading in the general direction of Target, David moved fluidly toward Matteo’s side, and took in his hand the hand that Matteo wasn’t using to hold his hot chocolate. Matteo almost dropped said hot chocolate, anyway, gaping at David briefly before slamming his mouth shut. David threaded their fingers together as Laura paused in front of a window display, cooing over miniatures and fake snow. Matteo tried to remember how to breathe.

David glanced over as Matteo was blowing on his hot chocolate, and in a moment of frenzied panic, Matteo took a huge gulp, immediately coughing, having burned the entirety of his tongue and the roof of his mouth.

Sam cracked up. “Careful, dude,” she said. “That’s hot.”

Matteo felt himself blushing furiously, and glanced at David out of the side of his eye. The corner of his mouth was just barely turned up. He noticed Matteo looking and squeezed his hand. Matteo’s knees went weak.

As the group moved forward, David pulled Matteo’s hand to tug him back. “I’m sorry,” he, hushed. “I know you heard me on the phone with Hanna.”

Matteo made a weird noise with his throat, avoiding David’s eyes, furious at himself for how hyper-aware he was of their hands, even now. His own was starting to sweat. He wanted the floor to open up and ship him off to the North Pole.

“She’s just protective of me,” David said. “And I was being… defensive. I didn’t… I’m not… mad.”

“You have every right to be,” Matteo said to the floor.

“I’m not.” David spoke firmly, squeezing Matteo’s hand again. His stomach flipped. David grinned when Matteo finally looked at him. “I’m also sorry about your mouth.”

“What?” Matteo squeaked.

“Your mouth. ’Cause you burned it.”

Matteo closed his eyes briefly, and pulled on David’s hand. “Come on. We’re falling behind.”

The group dispersed in Target, but Amira and Kiki stayed with David and Matteo as they wandered through the home decor, so David didn’t let go of Matteo’s hand.

Amira dropped into a child-size beanbag. Her head almost hit the ground.

“So, wait,” Kiki said, sitting more carefully in a miniature arm chair beside Amira and looking up at Matteo and David. “Are you guys dating? I thought you were just Laura’s friend,” she said, looking at Matteo with a quirked brow.

“Um,” Matteo said.

“Yeah,” David said. “We’re dating. But Matteo’s closeted, so the parents don’t know.”

Kiki nodded. “Gotcha.” She gave Matteo a sympathetic smile-grimace. “I feel you. I’m in the same boat.”

Matteo looked between her and Amira. “Your parents don’t know?” he asked Amira.

She raised her brows, smirking.

“ _My_ parents don’t know,” Kiki corrected.

Matteo released David’s hand, at last, to press his hands over his face. “Sorry. That was. Bad.”

Amira laughed. “It’s cool,” she said. “ _That’s_ why they don’t suspect anything, honestly.”

“Yeah,” Kiki said, laughing. “My parents would never guess I’m in lesbians with a Muslim girl.”

“ _Scott Pilgrim_ ,” David said. “Nice.”

“Yeah,” Kiki said, “I’m a film connoisseur, what can I say.”

Matteo grinned. “I read those.”

David looked at him, a smile tugging at his mouth. “You’re kind of a Scott.”

Matteo gaped. “OK. Rude.”

“You’re just saying that ’cause you wanna be a Ramona,” Amira said to David. David grinned and shrugged.

“Nah,” Matteo said. “You’re definitely Wallace.”

David laughed in surprise. Matteo dropped his hand to his side, and David took it again.

Mrs. Schreibner whirled around at the last minute, after all the other parents were already outside. “OK,” she said. “You kids be good. I mean it. No ragers. Don’t break anything in the village.”

“Are the vases up for grabs?” Essam asked.

“Knock yourself out.” She grinned. “See y’all at ten.” She closed the door behind her, and Laura turned up the volume on _Elf_.

Amira glanced over her shoulder from where she sat against the couch, with Kiki’s head in her lap. She looked between David and Matteo, sitting on opposite ends of the couch. “They’re gone,” she said.

“Oh, yeah,” Omar said, turning his head where he sat in one of the arm chairs to wiggle his brows at the two of them. “Parent-free zone for the next three hours. You two are free to couple it up.”

“Not sure what that means,” David said.

“Come on,” Laura said, beaming, leaning forward from the opposite armchair, “we’re all friends here. No need to be bashful. Cuddle up. Get cozy. This is a _safe place._ ”

Essam whooped. Kind of a weird thing to do for cuddling.

Matteo’s face was blazing when he glanced over at David. David was already looking at him. He moved his hand just a fraction, waving Matteo over.

Stunned, Matteo sat still as a statue for a long moment before Laura repeated, “Come _on._ ” Finally, he scooted across the couch, stopping, stiffly, at David’s side.

David lifted his arm and put it on the couch behind Matteo. Omar glanced at them again, quirking a brow before looking back at the TV. Matteo took several deep breaths, then slid down, just a bit, until his head was resting on David’s shoulder.

David froze beneath him. Matteo wanted to leap back and apologize, but there was no way he could explain that away to everyone in this room who thought they were actually dating. So he just stayed there, burning up and so embarrassed he felt queasy, as David sat beneath the weight of his head, stiff as a board. When he finally, gradually, relaxed, Matteo let out a loud breath that made Kiki glance up, albeit briefly. He closed his eyes, tempted to turn his head and bury his face in David’s shoulder, just out of sheer mortification. As if reading his mind, David moved a hand to comfortingly squeeze Matteo’s thigh. Except then he left his hand there. On Matteo’s thigh. Which was anything but comforting.

They could have been watching _The Exorcist_ , for all that Matteo was paying attention to the movie. He sat there, unmoving, his heart beating like a hummingbird’s wings flap, and as the others laughed, and mimicked iconic lines, he still didn’t move, or laugh, or breathe, much, really.

He stared at David’s hand. Why was he doing that? He didn’t need to do that. Maybe it just felt natural. That was a couple thing. It probably would have looked weird if Matteo was leaning on him and he was just sitting there stiff and separate, keeping his hands to himself. Matteo’s neck was starting to hurt from how rigidly he was holding himself. He adjusted his position just slightly, and somehow his head ended up nestled lower down, between David’s shoulder and his chest. It felt about a hundred times more intimate, and Matteo took in a shaky breath.

A moment passed, and then David moved. He moved his thumb. On Matteo’s thigh.

Up and down. Back and forth. He rubbed his thumb on Matteo’s thigh, and Matteo felt it like a hot iron being pressed, again and again, against his bare skin.

Laura glanced over, and her eyes caught on David’s hand. Matteo watched as her eyes trailed up to David’s. David’s thumb stopped moving. Matteo kind of wanted to give Laura a swift kick.

The movie ended, finally, and Omar and Essam immediately started arguing over what to watch next.

Matteo shot up before he could talk himself out of it. “I’m… not feeling well,” he said. Everyone turned to look at him. “So… I’m gonna… go to bed.”

“OK,” Laura said, smirking. “Night, then.”

Matteo shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. “Good night.”

He turned, looking down at David as David stared up at him, something like concern in his eyes. Acting on impulse, Matteo leaned down and kissed David briefly, softly— his mouth just barely touching skin, really— on the cheek. When he pulled away, David’s eyes were like saucers, and his mouth was open. Matteo spun around, holding a hand up as he went. “Good night!” he called again, to a chorus of mimicking replies.


	6. Chapter 6

“OK,” Matteo said. “So. I might… be into David.”

“This is _brand new information!_ ” Jonas said.

“All right, Phoebe, give it a rest. I’m being serious.”

“Well in that case, I’m thrilled to hear you finally admit it.” Jonas tilted his screen where he was sitting on his bed. Matteo watched as he settled more comfortably, leaning, himself, against the bed frame in his attic room. His own phone was propped up against his knees, precariously balanced. He sighed, and the phone fell. He held it up himself, then.

“I never _had_ to admit it,” he said, “because it didn’t _matter._ It wasn’t _relevant._ ”

“And now?”

“It’s extremely relevant. I kissed his _cheek_ last night.”

Jonas hooted enthusiastically. “Dude!”

“It wasn’t real, though.”

“No idea what that means. Is this a VR thing?”

“No. I mean, it was real. But it wasn’t, like _real_.”

“You lost me, dude.”

“We’re… fake dating.”

“ _What?_ ” Jonas laughed. “What, like, _The Proposal?_ ”

“Yeah. Kinda. Minus immigration lawyers.”

Jonas shook his head, holding up his hands. “Dude. I’m way behind, here. How did this happen? What? Dude, _what?_ ”

“It’s stupid and complicated and it was entirely my fault and David literally wants no part of it.” Matteo determinedly did not think about David’s thumb moving just above the inseam of Matteo’s jeans. “I just said we were dating to get his cousins off his back, and, like, I couldn’t exactly take it back without making him look bad, which was the opposite of what I was trying to do, so now we’re, just, you know, like, holding hands, or whatever, in front of them. But we don’t have to do it when any of the adults are around, so it’s really not a big deal. Except he touched my thigh last night.”

“ _What?_ ”

“That sounded like more than it was,” Matteo said. “I’m just… confused right now.”

“Uh, that makes two of us. What is _happening_ right now? Who even are you? You don’t do this stuff. You don’t take initiative like this. You’ve liked the guy for years and you never even say hi to him! Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call this taking initiative,” Matteo said. “We’re _fake_ dating.”

“You kissed his cheek!” Jonas shouted. Matteo frantically turned the volume down on his phone. It was early, and he didn’t think anyone else was awake yet, but better safe than sorry.

“The Matteo I know could barely even look at the dude because he was afraid he might be _caught. Caught looking_. Like that’s a punishable offense.”

Matteo sighed loudly, tugging at a loose thread in his bedspread. “I shouldn’t have come here.”

“You didn’t even know he was Laura’s sister,” Jonas said. “Which I still can’t believe, by the way. She mentioned him, like, numerous times. _Numerous._ ”

“Yeah, she said ‘my brother.’ She didn’t say _David, that dude you’re obsessed with._ ”

Jonas laughed.

The house started to wake up downstairs; noises traveling up to Matteo like heat. He sighed again and sat up straighter. “I better go.”

“Keep me updated,” Jonas said, his eyes wide and his grin wider. “I don’t want to miss a second of this!”

“You’re a jerk, dude.”

“What are best friends for?”

Matteo hung up and got dressed. The living room was packed when he got there. Laura handed him a plate piled high with pancakes and candy.

“Like _Elf!_ ” she cheered.

“Laura,” Mrs. Schreibner said, “please avoid sending our guests into diabetic shock.”

“He doesn’t have diabetes.” Laura turned to him. “You don’t have diabetes, do you, Matteo?”

“Not since I last checked.”

“Poor Nick Jonas,” Kiki said, from the kitchen table, with heartfelt sadness. Laura laughed, and Kiki lobbed a marshmallow at her.

“We’re going ice skating!” Laura said, turning back to Matteo. “You skate?”

“Board,” Matteo said, quirking a brow. “Not so much ice.”

“Well I’m Michelle Kwan, so you’re in good hands.”

“She’s terrible,” David said, stepping out of nowhere, from behind Matteo, and making him jump nearly out of his skin. Several gummy bears skidded off of Matteo’s plate to the floor. David looked from the floor to Matteo and raised his eyebrows.

Laura grabbed the gummy bears and popped them in hermouth, as David made a noise of disgust. She ignored him and talked, mid-chewing. “Ignore my idiot brother,” she said. “I’m a revelation on the ice.”

“Blades of gory,” David said. He looked at Matteo. “Because she does physical damage to others.”

Laura smacked David upside the head. Matteo tried to quell his grin.

“Think they’ll let me ride the _Deadpool_ thing?” Essam asked as they did up their skates.

“The _Zamboni?_ ” Laura snorted. “Yeah, no.”

“Can we leave, then?”

Omar laughed, jostling Essam’s shoulder. “Come on. Ladies love a guy who can skate.”

“Uh. Dude. Ice skating is pretty much famously gay.”

“Dude,” David said, pausing in doing up his laces to shoot Essam a look.

“ _What?_ It’s true! That’s not offensive!”

“Not really your call,” Matteo said before he realized he was going to. His face went hot, but David sent him a little close-mouthed grin.

Essam fish-mouthed. “What about _Yuri on Ice?_ ”

Omar cracked up.

Matteo furrowed his brows in confusion. Omar laughed harder as Essam determinedly went back to getting on his skates.

David waited for Matteo to finish with his skates, then offered his hand. Matteo stared at it for a too-long beat before letting David pull him up and walking behind him, carefully, his hand already feeling clammy as he tried not to fall over.

They got on the ice and Matteo immediately lost his balance. David caught him at the waist, laughing and meeting Matteo’s frantic eyes. “OK. Off to a good start.”

Matteo blushed furiously, his skin hot under his layers and David’s hands, still on his hips. He looked down, and back at David, who stared at him for a long moment before seeming to realize his hands were still on Matteo and finally letting him go.

David cleared his throat. “Just— hold on to the side for now, all right?”

Matteo nodded shakily, reaching out and gripping the side like a kid learning how to swim grips the side of a pool. “Thought I was supposed to be a natural at this,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Huh?”

“’Cause I’m gay.”

David threw his head back in a laugh. Matteo’s chest flooded with warmth, despite the chill everywhere else. Well, actually, anxiety was kind of making him sweat under his clothes. He should not have agreed to this.

“This…” Matteo took awkward, painstaking steps as David glided slowly beside him. “…sucks.”

David laughed again. “Don’t worry. It gets easier. Just— don’t—” He laughed, reaching out to steady Matteo with a hand on his shoulder. Matteo’s sweating increased at the contact. “Don’t take steps like that,” David said, clearly trying not to laugh.

“Like what?”

“You’re picking up your feet. It’s like— like cursive. You have to keep your feet down. Just— slide forward.”

“I _will_ fall.”

“No. You’re OK. You’ve got the side.”

“That won’t stop me.”

“Here—” David glided backwards— Matteo groaned internally— and slid in behind Matteo, putting his hands on Matteo’s waist, more deliberately this time, from behind. Matteo froze up.

“I’ve got you,” David said, his voice quiet as his hands flexed lightly at Matteo’s sides. Matteo’s heart thudded a heavy beat in his chest and he swallowed hard.

Admittedly, it helped. In a matter of minutes, Matteo was moving significantly more smoothly and quickly, and he even let go of the wall a couple of times. But having David behind him, holding his hips, was doing nothing to soothe Matteo’s nerves. He felt like he’d been holding his breath for several hours. Maybe he was unlikely to lose his balance like this, but he might pass out anyway.

He needed to say something. He hadn’t spoken in several minutes.

“I didn’t know you were Laura’s brother,” he said. OK. So. That was what he chose to say. Great.

David didn’t say anything.

“I mean,” Matteo went on, for reasons beyond his own understanding, “I knew she had a brother, but I didn’t know he was… you.”

“Oh,” David said, after a pause.

“I wouldn’t have—” What? _What?_ Was he going to say he wouldn’t have come if he’d known David would be here? That was rude! He was just trying to explain himself, but like, after a _second’s_ thought— how could that _not_ come off as rude?

“I… thought you knew,” David said. Matteo’s spiraling thoughts cut off. He glanced back at David. _Mistake._ Their eyes met, briefly, and Matteo’s skin, which had finally been cooling down, what with the ice and having had a few minutes to calm down, went fiery everywhere, like someone had spilled a whole vat of hot coffee on… just, all of him.

“Jonas— you know my best friend Jonas?”

“Yeah.”

“He was giving me a hard time about it, but, like, _he_ , of all people, I would have thought he would have said something—” Matteo cut himself off. What was he _saying?_ Jonas should have mentioned to Matteo that his crush was Laura’s brother? Like, what, was he just gonna _say that?_ To _David?_

David was quiet. “Why?” he asked, finally.

“Um. Nevermind.”

David laughed quietly. “I don’t get you.”

“Um.”

“It’s not a bad thing,” David said.

“Oh… K.”

They were silent another few moments. David broke it. “You’ve really never ice skated?”

“ _No._ I’m from California.”

“That’s right. I remember—” David cleared his throat. “They have ice rinks there, though, don’t they? Temporary ones?”

“Yeah. But you have to, like, be really into it, to go out of your way and do that. Not really my thing.”

“You don’t say.”

Matteo laughed. David could probably feel it under his fingers. Matteo had to close his eyes briefly at the thought. “I’m not really a sports-and-outdoor-activities kind of person, anyway. If there’s an inside alternative, I usually go with that. Except, like, ping pong.”

“Oh, so you’re a ping pong pro?”

“I’m like _Forrest Gump_ on the ping pong table. I’m not to be trifled with.”

David laughed.

Matteo swallowed. “You’re good at this, though.”

“I’m OK,” David said. “I guess I _am_ a… sports-and-outdoor-activities person.”

“Yeah, you run, right?”

There was a beat of silence, during which Matteo realized he might be giving a little too much away by sharing his memory of that little piece of David-trivia, years after their brief group-project-obligatory-friendship.

“Yeah,” David said eventually. “I did, in high school. I’m not on a team at school or anything. But I still enjoy it.”

“I’ve seen you around,” Matteo said, trying to come to his own rescue.

“I usually go out pretty early,” David said, dubiously.

“I’m an early riser,” Matteo lied.

David didn’t push the issue.

Laura called them in, eventually, for hot chocolate, which Essam spiked with a Spiderman flask. It snowed as they drove home; the kind of thick snowfall that doesn’t let you make out individual snowflakes. Matteo felt David’s hands on his hips hours after they were gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i should have said this in the notes for the last chapter, but the correct answer in Essam and Omar's who-has-better-hot-chocolate argument is Coffee Bean. just so y'all know. this is not up for debate, thx


	7. Chapter 7

Matteo sat cross-legged on Laura’s floor, flipping through her yearbooks and refusing to be helpful as she wrapped presents.

“Are you sure I shouldn’t get a gift for your parents?” Matteo asked, glancing up anxiously as Laura struggled with taping up the corner of an oddly-shaped package.

“They wouldn’t accept it,” she said.

Matteo chewed on his lip and looked at the single present he’d had to wrap himself— the one he’d brought from school, for Laura. She’d chosen it herself, so discretion wasn’t necessary.

“…What about your brother?”

Laura looked up, quirked a brow, and smirked pointedly. “I think you’re gift enough for him.”

Matteo whacked her over the head with a roll of wrapping paper as she cackled.

“No, Matteo, you don’t need to get him anything. You’d just make him feel bad that he didn’t get _you_ anything.” She paused, her face going thoughtful. “Although. Hm.”

Matteo’s anxiety spiked. “What?”

“He left the house without telling us where he was going,” she said. “Maybe he’s getting you something.”

Matteo groaned long and loud. Laura patted his knee not-so-consolingly. “Don’t worry about it, Florenzi. You’re our guest!”

“Exactly,” Matteo said. “I’m infringing on your holiday! And I don’t even have gifts for you!”

“I’ll accept payments in weed,” she offered.

He glared. “I _have_ a gift for _you._ ”

“My parents will also accept payments in weed.”

He whacked her again.

“What’s the deal with the party tonight?” Matteo asked, chewing on his lower lip. “I don’t have to like, dress up, do I?”

Laura’s head shot up, her eyes wide. “Did you not bring a suit?”

“What? No! Of course I didn’t! You—”

Laura beamed and Matteo groaned, going to whack her again, but she dodged it this time. “You’re fine, Matteo. I mean, preferably you don’t wear, like, sweatpants or pajamas, but it’s casual. It’s just neighbors and family friends.”

“My family never does anything for Christmas Eve,” Matteo said. “I mean, we watch _It’s a Wonderful Life,_ but that’s it.”

“Don’t get too excited,” Laura said. “Us kids usually just camp out in my or David’s room and play board games, or whatever. The party is really for _the adults._ ”

“Aren’t we kind of… part of that? Now?”

“You would think. But no.” Laura laughed. “We’re allowed to drink, but not in front of people. It’s like mom and dad think the neighbors will turn on them if they find out that they don’t hold us to the same standards they did when we were eight.”

Matteo nodded, leaning back against her bedspread. Normally, he would be relieved that, at a Christmas party full of strangers, he would be allowed to just hang out with his friend and her relatives, away from the older people and their prying questions and judgmental looks. But being out of sight of the “adults” _here_ meant being David’s boyfriend. And the longer this went on, the harder it was to remind himself that he _wasn’t_ actually… that.

David had been looking at him a lot. Across rooms, over tables. Stealthy looks that ended when Matteo looked back, or resulted in a kind of conspiratorial smile that made Matteo’s insides feel like Silly Putty. Matteo didn’t know what to make of it. Were they becoming friends? Was David just really dedicated to looking like a couple?

Or was it something else?

Matteo grabbed the wrapping paper and whacked Laura again.

“Ow! What was that for?”

Matteo shrugged and slid to the floor.

Laura had exaggerated about the lack of alcohol. Matteo was on his second mug of spiked hot chocolate, and feeling notably light-headed, as the cousins played Chronology and yelled at each other with vitriol. Matteo sat back on the window seat with Laura’s neighbor, Mia, the two of them exchanging amused glances every time the game got especially aggressive.

David sighed loudly and backed up, promptly falling off the bed. The cousins cackled as Matteo’s eyes went wide.

“OK,” David declared. “That’s it. I’m out.”

“Of course you are!” Laura yelled. She whirled toward Matteo. “He always does this.”

“Shut up!”

“If he’s not winning, he bails. Every time.”

“Wrong!” David stood up on what appeared to be unsteady legs and made his way over to Matteo. “I’m just over this,” he said, sending Laura a glare over his shoulder. He turned and smiled at Matteo, his eyes going soft at the corners. “I’d rather be cuddling my boyfriend.”

Amira, Kiki, and Omar wolf-whistled as Mia, giggling, scooted none-too-subtly away from Matteo, apparently to give them room. Matteo just stared at David. He was pretty sure his heart had stopped.

David plopped down next to Matteo and slipped his hand around his waist as Matteo tried desperately to take a breath. David grinned and leaned over, touching his forehead briefly to Matteo’s. Matteo felt David’s breath on his face and felt his eyelashes flutter as his breath finally escaped him in a stutter-y gasp.

David pulled away, still grinning, but his face melted, suddenly, into a put-upon frown. “I’m mad at you,” he whispered.

“You are?”

“Yeah.” He lowered his voice even more, leaning in to be heard over the cousins, whose game had continued, unimpeded by David’s loss. “I keep forgetting, though.”

“Oh.”

David nodded sagely.

“Can I ask… why?” Matteo managed, after what seemed like an absurdly long stretch of time.

“No!” David screeched, earning him a few confused glances. He cleared his throat, pushing a hand through his hair. “No,” he said, more quietly. “You should know.”

“Oh.”

David snorted a laugh. “I seriously don’t get you.”

Matteo shrugged. “I’m not complicated.”

David looked over at him, suddenly appearing a lot more sober, like he’d reached a peak and tipped over the other side. “You’re a single-color puzzle,” he said, and pulled his arm away, sighing.

Matteo stared at the ground. He remembered the feeling he had in his gut, now. He remembered, suddenly, the way David had looked at him, that day in the campus center, when Matteo had run out of topics of conversation; excuses to stretch out their time together. He’d said, “I guess that’s it, then,” and David had looked at him— just looked at him— and he hadn’t said anything, he’d just nodded, eventually, but when he looked at him, the way he looked at him, Matteo thought… but then they left, they turned the project in, and that was it. David didn’t say hi to him when they saw each other around campus. He didn’t sit next to him in class anymore, he didn’t even look at him. And it was like Matteo had imagined the whole thing. He _had_ imagined the whole thing. He thought he had.

But David’s arm, pressed between them, no longer wrapped around Matteo’s waist, singed like an open flame against Matteo’s, and Matteo was a single-color puzzle— maybe he hadn’t imagined it. Maybe it was real. Maybe he’d missed something, somewhere. He felt suddenly desperate to find out what it was.

Matteo took in a shaky breath and slid down, resting his head on David’s shoulder. David only froze for a moment, this time, before slackening and slipping his hand onto Matteo’s thigh, like a routine. Like a puzzle piece.

Mia leaned over. “You guys are so cute,” she whispered to Matteo, but David heard it, too. Matteo looked up as David looked down, and David’s eyes went crinkly again.

Matteo bit his lip. “Still mad at me?” he whispered.

David shook his head, squeezing Matteo’s thigh. “You’re impossible.”

Kiki leaped off the bed, letting out a victory whoop as Amira excitedly applauded and Essam yelled, “Foul! Foul!” like they were playing football instead of nerdy history-centered card game.

A knock came on the door, and David quickly released Matteo’s thigh. It took Matteo a moment to remember the whole charade-within-a-charade, so he was only just straightening, frantically, when the door opened and Mrs. Schreibner looked in.

Her eyes landed on Matteo and David immediately, like they were under a spotlight. Something like curiosity alighted in her expression, and then a soft smile played around her mouth. Matteo’s stomach convulsed, and it took every ounce of his willpower— and what was left of his sobriety— not to glance over at David, to see what his face was doing, just then.

Mrs. Schreibner’s expression sobered and she sent the cousins, on the bed, a glare. “Y’all. You _know_ you’re being too loud. This is a classy party, not a rave.”

“Mom. Seriously. You’re holding a martini in a glass shaped like the thigh lamp from _A Christmas Carol._ ”

Mrs. Schreibner looked from her daughter to her glass and back again. Her mouth twitched up at the corners. “This is a collectible item!”

“OK. If you need weed, just ask.” Laura whirled away. Matteo gaped; Mrs. Schreibner just cackled and shut the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S E A S O N F I V E I S R E A L LGKHDSLKGHLSDKHGLSKDHG


	8. Chapter 8

Christmas morning in the Schreibner house was a stunningly calm affair. Matteo woke up at eleven, naturally, and shot up when he glanced at the time on his phone— but when he’d hurriedly dressed and dashed downstairs, he discovered only half the house was awake, and no one seemed in any particular hurry to wake up the other half. David was slumped low in an arm chair with a steaming mug and a paperback open on his knee. He looked up when Matteo walked into the living room and gave him a little smile, like you might give to a yawning baby or a kitten.

“Hey,” Matteo said. He glanced at Omar as he sat down on the opposite side of the couch from him, and Kiki where she sat in the other arm chair, curled around a mug and her phone.

“Good morning,” David said, his voice hushed. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” Matteo echoed, casting another glance around the house, bewildered. “This is… pretty chill.”

David laughed. “Yeah, we’re not really into getting up on the crack of dawn in the name of celebration in this family.” He grinned. “Don’t worry, though. Christmases aren’t uneventful in the Schreibner household.”

“What’re we doing?” Matteo asked, pulling his legs up under him, leaning forward on the couch, as David shifted, so they were turned in toward each other. “Laura didn’t really say. She was pretty cryptic about it, actually.”

“She probably wanted to surprise you,” David said, rolling his eyes, but his expression was fond. “We have a kind of weird tradition. We go on a Christmas hike.”

Matteo stared at him blankly. A long beat passed. “A what?”

David laughed again. “A Christmas hike. It’s nothing too long or crazy, don’t worry. It’s just— my dad’s like you. Native Californian. And his parents always used to take his family on a hike on Christmas, because, you know, the weather there is always great.”

“But we’re not in California,” Matteo said, then fought the urge to roll his eyes at himself for stating the blindingly-obvious.

David just smiled. “No. But it’s tradition, now. It’s kind of cool, anyway, hiking in the snow. You feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder or something.”

Matteo tilted his head. “Who?”

David ducked his chin. “ _Little House on the Prairie,_ ” he muttered.

Matteo beamed. “OK. That’s pretty cute.”

David’s head shot up again, and Matteo’s face went hot as their eyes met. He ducked his own chin, then. “So. Um. Do you guys open your presents first, or?”

David nodded. “Whenever everyone’s awake, if there’s time, you know, to still go hike after before the sun goes down.”

Matteo looked up again, quirking a brow.

David laughed. “You would be surprised. It’s not uncommon for Essam to sleep until two.”

“Or three,” Omar chimed in. He grinned over at Matteo.

“Come on,” David said, standing. “Let’s get some food in you.”

Matteo was restless by the time present-opening finally began— he’d been sitting around for what felt like forever, eating and talking quietly with David, Kiki, and Omar, drinking mug after mug of hot chocolate and cycling the words “Christmas hike” over and over in his mind like that might make them make more sense.

Even the gift-opening wasn’t the chaotic affair Matteo had been expecting— only David and Laura had more than one present to open; the rest were small, obligatory so-you-don’t-feel-left-out gifts for the cousins and a couple more personal, non-religious gifts exchanged between and Amira and Kiki because they only got to see each other twice a year. David and Laura had also bought a gift each for their parents, but overall, the whole affair took less than twenty minutes from beginning to end. Matteo couldn’t even manage to feel awkward about being gift-less himself, under the circumstances. Gift-opening at _his_ family’s Christmases always took _ages,_ with cousins yelling and little ones crying and tiffs breaking out over one kid getting more presents than another. It was always fun, despite the madness, but he kind of liked this better. Maybe mixed-faith households were preferable on days like this.

The volume of the group finally escalated when they all set about getting into their warm clothes for the Christmas hike. Scarves and gloves were suddenly M.I.A. and debates over the proper amount of layering grew quickly heated. Matteo pulled his own beanie low over his ears just as David did, and they shared a little glance and a smile that made his stomach suddenly regret having quite so many cups of hot chocolate.

The drive to the trail was thankfully short, and everyone piled out of the Mahmoods’ rental van into the otherwise-unoccupied parking lot, singing and laughing and already freezing.

“This is bananas,” Matteo whispered to Laura.

“I know,” she said. “I try to talk them out of it every year, to zero avail.”

“She’s a liar,” David said, appearing on Matteo’s other side. “She loves it.”

Laura rolled her eyes. “OK, so it’s a _little_ magical when I don’t feel like I’m going to lose body parts to hypothermia at any given moment. Which is, like, two minutes, tops, of the whole time we’re out here. Which is _too long!_ ” She raised her voice as she angled herself told her parents.

“Complainers don’t get dessert,” Mrs. Schreibner sing-songed.

“And dessert doesn’t get complainers!” Mr. Schreibner added.

Mrs. Mahmood shook her head with a little grin. “Your jokes could use some work, Andrew.”

“You have to laugh!” he said. “It’s Christmas!”

“I am Muslim.”

“I’ll laugh at your jokes during Ramadan, I promise.”

“Because I am funny.”

Mrs. Schreibner cracked up.

“OK,” Mr. Mahmood said. “Safety first. Does everyone have cell phone numbers? In case we are separated?”

“It’s a simple hike,” Mrs. Mahmood said.

“Safety first!” He glared around the group. “Two people’s numbers. At least.”

Matteo glanced down at his phone. He leaned over to Laura. “Will we even have service on the trail?”

Laura shrugged, grinning. “Just go with it.” She looked over his shoulder at David, grinning. “Why don’t you take Matteo’s number, David?”

“Oh.” David rubbed at the back of his neck. “Um, I actually… have it.”

Matteo raised a brow. “No, you don’t.”

Laura looked between them, back and forth, as David dropped his hand to his side. “I do,” he said. “From the group project.”

“No, I know,” Matteo said. “I have yours, still, but you don’t have mine. I got a new number since then.”

David stared at him, his face completely blank.

“OK,” Laura said. “So give him your number, Matteo.”

“When?” David asked.

Matteo, holding out his phone, drew his brows down and together. “When what?”

“When did you get a new number?”

“Oh. Like, pretty soon after our project, actually.” He went sheepish. “I dropped my phone off a roof.”

Laura threw her head back in a cackle. “I forgot about that!”

“You weren’t even there!”

“Classic!”

“I didn’t even know you then!”

David was staring hard at the ground.

“Dude,” Omar said, coming up from behind. “You good? You look sick.”

David heaved in a shaky breath. Matteo stared at him, wide-eyed and confused. “I’m good,” David said. “Let’s go.” He started walking.

“I thought you were gonna get Matteo’s digits!” Laura called.

“What?” Omar laughed. “He doesn’t have his boyfriend’s number?”

Laura shushed him loudly, and all three of them cast frantic glances around, only relaxing when they saw all the parents huddled together, clearly paying them no attention.

“I’m— just gonna—”Matteo pointed toward David and then dashed away from the others to catch up with him. David was already rounding a bend out of sight by the time Matteo made it to his side.

Matteo wasn’t sure what to say. “Are you OK?”

“Yes.”

“What was… back there…”

David shook his head. They crossed a tiny stream, somehow still moving— Matteo would have thought everything would be frozen over out here. He glanced back at the water as they pressed on.

“Does this trail lead somewhere? Like a waterfall or something?”

“A lake. It’s frozen over.”

“Oh, cool! Like, you can walk on it frozen over, or like, look but don’t touch lest you fall to your icy death, frozen over?”

David licked his lips. “The second one.”

Matteo glanced over at David, struggling to keep up with his brisk pace. The forest floor crunched beneath his feet, and an icy breeze cut through his layers, sending a shiver down his spine. “Are you—”

“Turn here,” David said, and turned. Matteo nearly tripped and fell, fumbling to follow.

“Boys!” Mrs. Schreibner yelled from somewhere behind them. “Don’t go too far ahead!”

“We’re fine,” David yelled back. He didn’t slow down.

“Did I do something?” Matteo asked.

“No.”

Birds chirped above them. Matteo looked up and around himself. He wondered if there were any hibernating bears hidden away in here. Were there even bears in these woods at all? Who even hikes on Christmas day? Matteo heaved a sigh.

Kiki jogged to catch up with them, dragging Amira behind her. “How great is this, right?”She beamed at the two of them, pulling Amira in close to her side. Amira was already a little out of breath. Matteo felt a keen sense of understanding.

“Yeah,” Matteo managed, glancing over at David’s icy expression again, completely lost as to what had happened. “Um, it’s cool. I feel like we’re in _Into the Wild,_ or something.”

“The movie where the dude dies alone in the woods?” Amira asked, raising a brow. “Cool?”

Matteo laughed. “Bad example, I guess.”

“At least you didn’t say _127 Hours._ ”

“He didn’t actually die in that one, though.”

“Fair point.”

David stayed quiet, though he’d finally started to slow down, walking at a semi-regular pace, at last, as the trail widened out beneath them. Amira started up a game meant for long car drives, and Laura caught up and joined as they walked. Still David remained silent, just shaking his head when he was asked to play. The adults were singing somewhere behind them, and Essam was loudly complaining as Omar spouted nature facts that sounded patently untrue. Laura revealed a flask when Matteo asked if anyone had a water bottle. He took the water bottle Amira offered instead.

The hike wasn’t too long. The lake appeared before them just as Matteo was starting to wonder if they would take a break soon. It was frozen over, as David had said it would be. Just in the center, where the ice must have been thickest, a fat little bird sat primly poised, like a gemstone set on the top of a crown.

Matteo let out a long, icy breath. “Wow.”

Laura grinned at him. “Right?”

“This never gets old,” Kiki said, grinning wide as she slipped her phone out of her pocket and took off a glove, immediately crouching down to take pictures.

Matteo glanced to his side to gauge David’s reaction, but he wasn’t there. He spun, darting his gaze around, panic rising in his chest, but then he spotted David, just ten or fifteen feet away, crouching by a thicket on the lakeside.

Matteo walked slowly away from the others, approaching David hesitantly, afraid to startle him away like he might the little bird on the lake.

David glanced up at him when he was just at his side.

“Can I sit with you?”

David shrugged. Matteo squatted down beside him.

They were just out of sight of the others, besides their feet, and Matteo couldn’t see them, either, through the branches he was now lower than. He gave in with a little huff and sat all the way down. His pants would be filthy, but he couldn’t find it in him to care.

A long pause stretched between them, the silence broken by the others’ enthusiastic voices as everyone else arrived.

“This is a cool tradition,” Matteo said at last.

“You didn’t tell me you got a new phone.”

Matteo froze. A beat passed. “What?”

David was looking at him, finally, his face betraying emotion at last— though what emotion, Matteo had no idea. Frustration? Anger? Sadness?

“You didn’t _tell_ me you got a new phone. I thought you were at the same number.”

“Oh,” Matteo said, bemused. “Um, well, the project was over, so…”

“So it didn’t matter,” David said, his face falling as he turned away.

“No! I mean— I just— I didn’t want to— I thought you—”

“I texted you.”

Matteo’s eyes bugged like he’d been punched in the gut. “You… did?”

David’s chest was rising and falling fast, his breaths shallow and loud in the quiet of the winter forest, and the slight distance between them and the rest of the group. “Yeah. I did. I asked you out.”

“ _What?_ ”

“I— I wanted to ask you in person, but I couldn’t get up the— so I texted you. I asked you to coffee. Off campus, I mean, not at the cafe or anything. I mean, it was obvious I was asking you out. And you didn’t respond. You never even _responded._ Like, you could have just said no, if you weren’t interested, or like, even just— and then all the sudden you were, like, best friends with my _sister_ , out of the blue, and meanwhile you wouldn’t even acknowledge I existed, and you never even _responded—_ ”

“I didn’t get it! I had a new number!”

“Well I know that now!” David’s face collapsed and he slapped his hands over it, his shoulders shaking with laughter. “You dropped your phone off a roof. Of _course_ you dropped your phone off a roof.”

Matteo felt like he’d eaten an edible without realizing it an hour ago and it’d only just kicked in. “You asked me out?”

David looked at him again, at last. He was still laughing, smiling, looking so amused and confused and annoyed. “I honestly cannot believe you, Florenzi.”

Matteo stared back. “You,” he said. “ _You_ asked _me_ out.”

“Yes, Matteo! I— by text, like a full _Wizard of Oz_ level coward, and, like, serves me right, I guess, for not just going to you directly, because—”

Matteo darted forward. He couldn’t help it. Not anymore. There was no _way_ he could _not._

David gasped against his mouth, and immediately his hand was in Matteo’s hair, and Matteo’s beanie was on the ground, and his ears were cold, they were _freezing_ , actually, but he was hot absolutely everywhere else, so it didn’t really matter. Matteo kissed David, he moved his mouth without a single pause or need to think a movement through, like he’d been running practice rounds in his head for years, which, OK, wasn’t far off. And David kissed him _back_. David smiled into the kiss, his hands tugging at Matteo’s mop of hair, his teeth clanking against Matteo’s, and they broke apart to laugh, only to dive back in with the kind of frenzied, hurried need of a rescuer grabbing at the arms of someone who’s fallen through ice.

“ _Dudes,_ ” Essam scream-whispered. “The ’rents are literally _right_ there! Ix-nay on the -aking out may!”

“Americans don’t say “’rents,” Essam,” David said, his eyes glittering and unwavering on Matteo’s.

“And pig Latin is kind of out, too,” Matteo added, darting a glance at Essam over his shoulder.

“Whatever,” Essam huffed. “Just trying to look out for you bozos.”

David laughed into Matteo’s shoulder as Essam walked away. “ _Bozos._ ”

“You asked me out!” Matteo whispered.

“I think we’ve established that. _You_ just kissed me, you might have noticed.”

“Did I?”

David grinned.

“I thought you hated me,” Matteo whispered. “You just stopped talking to me after our project! You wouldn’t sit next to me in class anymore, you wouldn’t even say hi!”

“I thought you’d ghosted me, I was upset!”

Matteo was shaking with laughter, now, too. “We’re… idiots.”

“Why are we whispering?”

“Who even _hikes_ on _Christmas?_ ”

That broke them. Mrs. Schreibner wandered over, her hands on her hips, as the two of them laughed so hard David nearly toppled over into the lake, and Matteo had to catch him, and both their sides were aching, the slight cramp Matteo already had from the hike cranking up into a full-blown stabby-grab-your-side-and-bend-at-a-weird-angle shooting pain. But neither of them could stop laughing.

Mr. Schreibner wandered over, too, his eyebrows raised up high.

“Boys are so weird,” Mrs. Schreibner said to her husband.

“Right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the resemblance between this scene and the camping scene in blister in the sun is honestly entirely coincidental. i just have a thing for lakes fklghlks


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LAST CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!

Matteo waited until the house was silent, and then waited a little bit longer, so there would be no chance of anyone being awake, still, before he crept down from the attic and tapped lightly at David’s door.

It swung open almost immediately, like David had been waiting for him there. He gave Matteo a leering smile and pulled him in by the front of his shirt. The door swung shut behind him, and Matteo winced at the sound.

David latched onto his neck, tugging him toward the bed before abruptly changing his trajectory, pushing Matteo up against his wall. Matteo’s head bounced off with a resounding thud, his heart thudding along with it, fast and heavy, and he frantically looked over his shoulder, knowing Laura’s room was just on the other side of the wall he’d just hit.

“Shhh!” he urged David, who was attached at his neck again. “Your sister!”

“ _Shhh,_ ” David mimicked, grinning against Matteo’s skin, “my sister.”

Matteo closed his eyes, fighting a grin, and let David pull him toward the bed.

They sprawled out there, kissing for what felt like forever, frantically, at first, then lazily, then frantically, again, as Matteo fought not to break down into hysterical laughter; completely stunned that this was happening. Like, _really._ This was real.

“This isn’t some elaborate prank, right?” Matteo managed, when they’d paused to catch their breath. David laughed.

“What would the prank be?”

“I don’t know. I’m just…” he rolled onto his belly, struggling to take in a steady breath. “Kind of in shock right now.”

David grinned at him in the near-dark. “Laura’s gonna kill me.”

Matteo groaned. “Me, too.”

“But hey, all my cousins already think we’re together.”

Matteo barked a laugh before slapping his hand over his mouth. “I’m still sorry about that.”

David shrugged. “It turned out OK, I think.”

Matteo beamed. “Psh.”

“Pshhh,” David nudged him, falling down over his back and nuzzling at Matteo’s neck.

“Jonas is gonna give me so much crap over this.”

“Hanna, too.”

Matteo turned his head, his eyes wide. “She hates me!”

“Only because she thinks you ghosted me!” David laughed.

“ _Oh._ ” Matteo laughed, too. David rolled him over, capturing his mouth, again, with his own.

Matteo’s stomach was like a water snake, slithering, spinning, wriggling, and he was so warm all over, like there was a little sun inside him— he was a galaxy, with David hovering over him, he was full of stars and moons and David was time, gravity, the expanding and exploding of everything, ever. They were all there was, they were too much, Matteo’s head was blank, empty of all thoughts, and somehow, at the same time, flooded, drowning in every wonderful memory, every good feeling, every taste, sound, sensation he’d ever loved, on the tips of his fingers and the skin of his lips, as David kissed him like he was creating something, like he was inventing love.

“You’re…” David whispered, and he breathed out a little laugh, like awe, and Matteo’s face flushed along with his chest, and he smiled so wide his cheeks hurt. David kissed them, like he could see the ache and wanted to soothe it with his mouth.

“I didn’t think I would get this,” David said. “I wanted it too much.”

Matteo breathed out like he was exhaling smoke, overwhelmed. “I know,” he whispered. “It’s like… too good to be true.”

David nodded, looking down at him. “I didn’t even tell Laura about you,” he said, his voice hushed. “When we were working on the project. It felt like I’d jinx it. Like, how I felt with you— everything was so easy and good, you know? It felt so… breakable.”

“I didn’t really believe you felt it, too,” Matteo said, shaking his head. “I thought it was wishful thinking.”

David lowered himself, hovering just over Matteo’s mouth. “I feel it,” he whispered. He touched his forehead to Matteo’s, and their hearts beat together, fast, like runners side by side, touching down again and again on a track, the sun in their eyes and the wind, pushing them back, unable to slow them down. They were the kind of inevitable that’s usually reserved for weather, or the arrival of night after day and day after night. It was right, the two of them, like this. Impossible and indisputable.

At some point, they fell asleep, and when Matteo woke up again, in the middle of the night, and snuck out and back up to the attic, he felt lighter than the snowfall outside, and warmer than the embers still glowing in the hearth.

Sam sidled up to them with a smirk. “Almost countdown time, guys.”

“Sam,” David said, sighing. “We’re _actually_ dating, now.” Matteo’s stomach flipped over and giddy buzzing set off in his fingers at David’s words. It’d been a few days, but it still hadn’t really registered.

“I’m just saying,” Sam said.

“I know what you’re saying. We’re gonna kiss at New Year’s. And it’s not gonna be a big deal, because we’re _dating._ In real life.”

Sam raised her eyebrows, grinning. “I’m just _saying_.”

Hanna came up behind her, laughing as she wrapped an arm around Sam’s shoulders, dangling a champagne glass in the fingers of her other hand. “Is Sam still on the fake dating thing?”

“I don’t think we’re ever gonna live this down,” David said to Matteo.

Matteo shrugged, grinning.

“You think right,” Laura said from Matteo’s other side, grabbing the champagne from Hanna’s hand. “It is my God-given right as your sister to make fun of you for this for the rest of your life.”

David looked between her and Matteo. “Worth it.”

Hanna made a gagging sound and Laura nodded at her in approval, her eyes wide.

“For the record,” Amira said, from the couch behind them, as Kiki tried in vain to actually watch _When Harry Met Sally_ through the bodies crowded around and in front of the TV, “I never believed it.”

David scoffed. “You did.”

“Wrong. I have an excellent lie detector.”

“How’s your gaydar, though?” Matteo asked.

“Also excellent.”

Kiki burst out a laugh at that, finally looking away from the movie. “You thought I was straight for _months_.”

Amira sputtered a wordless protest.

“I had to _tell you_ I was flirting with you.”

“You— that doesn’t count!”

“How does that not count?”

“I— shut up, would you?” She grinned at her girlfriend, shoving her away playfully.

The music swelled over the house speakers, and Essam and Omar sang at the top of their lungs, their accents misshaping the words as they missed the notes, and Hanna cracked up as Kiki sighed exaggeratedly and grabbed the remote, cranking up the volume on the TV.

“Thirty seconds!” Sam screamed, practically in David’s ear. He leveled a glare at her, and Hanna cheered, grabbing back her champagne from Laura and lifting it up, spilling a bit on her shirt in the process.

“What’s your New Year’s resolution?” Matteo asked David.

“To get your number,” David said.

Matteo gaped. “Oh! Right!” He pulled out his phone, and David laughed, grabbing Matteo behind the neck.

“You are seriously the worst.”

Sam screamed down the last ten seconds, but David went in for the kiss before the New Year could begin, and that hungry, giddy feeling started up in Matteo’s stomach as their mouths moved together, David’s grip on his neck and waist strong and insistent. The year ended and another began, and Matteo kissed David like a reveler, appreciative and amazed, jealous of himself, and all the years yet to come, when he might get to kiss David more, and again, over and over like you return to a favorite song or painting, always able to get more out of it than you did before, because it keeps going, on and on, rich with meaning and possibilities, rife with the kind of beauty you can’t deny or recover from.

“I’m glad you came home with me for Christmas,” David whispered against his lips.

“Technically, I came home with your sister,” Matteo whispered back.

David huffed a laugh. “You do not know when to shut up,” he said, and he kissed Matteo again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's a wrap!!! thank you so much for reading, I appreciate you all so much! Please comment with your thoughts if you're so inclined, I love reading all your comments so much & they motivate me to keep writing for y'all! On the subject of which, I'm probably gonna write another davenzi fic soon... this is definitely my new favorite fandom to write for. You guys are so great!  
> So, until next time!! xoxo

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi [on tumblr](http://shesarealphony.tumblr.com) :)
> 
> [fic post](http://shesarealphony.tumblr.com/post/189543793950/ill-be-home-for-christmas-by-zeldasayre-me)


End file.
